Drip Your Way to a Healthy, Water-wise Garden by Jacquelin Buratovich-Collins

Thinking about changing your garden from a traditional sprinkler system to drip?   Dazed and confused in the irrigation aisle at the garden center?   No budget for an irrigation contractor?   Fear not, drip irrigation is easier than it looks! First, draw a plan of your yard.   Use one corner of the lot or the house as your “control point,” measure the distance to all features from this point and transfer the measurements to paper, using ¼ inch to represent 1 foot in the field.   Locate big things first: the house, other structures, trees, shrubs, driveway, and walkways.   Then locate the exterior faucets and the water supply to any existing irrigation system.   Measure and draw existing and planned flower and vegetable beds and turf areas. When complete, make a couple copies of the drawing for planning purposes. Next, group plants with similar water requirements into single zones and consider how often each plant grouping/zone needs water.   Turf should be irrigated with traditional s